Luke 12:48 But he that knew not, and did commit things worthy of stripes, shall be beaten with few stripes. For unto whomsoever much is given, of him shall be much required: and to whom men have committed much, of him they will ask the more.
Praise the Lord! I am so thankful to be here today….the Lord is placing so much on my heart and mind this day for things to be clearer in my life and this is just going to have to be the time to step up to the plate. I am still trying to get the thoughts in my mind that sometimes you just have to do what you have to do and not worry about what others are doing and not doing.
So many times we are going through stuff in our lives, that we stop remembering the direction of the Lord in our lives. We get so much from Him and forget to pass it on to others. We get so caught up in our own lives that we forget to bless others. We end up putting blinders on and missing out on opportunities to not only witness but give a helping hand to those in need. We have to remember that we are servants unto the Lord – that Jesus will use us to help others – He uses each of us to bless others….
We are a blessing and we need to be that blessing to others and just be excited to help. We get too concerned about the things in our lives and not realize that there is more to life than what is just in our minds…we need to expand ourselves outside of the box of a life that we have created and walk in the ways and will of the Lord – once we start doing that we will see plenty of opportunities to do serve unto the Lord and being a blessing to others.
It is Friday – Yahoo….enjoy your weekend and May this be a day of rejoicing for you!
God Bless
Love your sister in Christ,
Sister Alissa Lynne Griffith
What a beautiful day! Praise the Lord! It is beautiful for I am alive. As I read Part Nine in the program today, I had to laugh as to the reference to What Would Jesus Do (WWJD) as I just wrote about that yesterday. As I prefer What Did Jesus Do (WDJD) instead, so I found it so cute and it shows that I am not pre reading the steps. LOL Praise the Lord!
Today’s steps in each program, I am thankful for today’s steps I have been doing in my life since coming to build my relationship with the Lord. It is something for the very first thing I did was rid myself of so much “stuff”. One that is still hard for me is music, I was a huge R & B, mellow jazz fan, I mean HUGE!! I loved to dance and I loved to listen to that music. When my son came along, Friday nights were Jonathan and I dancing the night away, well at least until his bed time. We used to have a ball doing that. I noticed for me, I had to give all that kind of music up for what it did to my mind. It would have my body moving in movements that are not of God, and surely the thoughts that it invoked in me was not of God either. I always felt like I was doing something wrong in listening to that music, so when my commitment to my walk grew stronger, the music of my past was gone.
I started to listen to some of the gospel and praise/worship songs, WOW, was all I could say. Some of it sounded just like the stuff I used to listen too, LOL, it also started reminding me of things back in the day, so I started limiting myself to what I was listening too even in the Christian music venue. I listen still to some jazz music, but only the instrumentals with no singing of others, yet and still some of it I can not listen too. I listen to the direction of the Holy Spirit in me to make that determination. Most times any more, if I am in my car, I am listening to the word, or nothing but the sounds of Sister Alissa Lynne, plus the lovely playing and singing of my gospel husband who is a musician.
I am blessed to be able to surround myself with the sounds and words of God while I am at work. I am blessed because we can listen to whatever we want to listen to on our computer or headsets. It is a wonderful perk in my job as it was not always this way for me. God knows what we need and how we need to do it. He has blessed me to be able to surround myself with Him and I really have no excuse as to why not. I was blessed to move from a supervisor position to a desk position. I was going through so much in the beginning of my walk, at that time; Jonathan’s dad and I were going through our separation, my mother had passed away, the job location had changed, and I was sick all the time and did not know what was wrong with me. I was trying to walk as God called me to walk, but oh everything was coming at me so hard. God blessed me – I was just so stressed and could not see straight, all I could do was call on Jesus.
Well that was all I needed to do, I talked to another manager of the department that I was working for, and he was moved to have me placed as his assistant until I could find something else in the company. Come to find out, if I would not have moved, someone would have lost their position, another supervisor as I had enough seniority to keep mine and I really could not stand my job anymore. Praise the Lord! I found a position within the company and never lost my pay. I moved down to an hourly pay scale, but never lost the money I was making. In corporate America, that is a miracle! AMEN! I am blessed!
When I moved from the supervisor position, I have been able to surround myself with the Lord all day long and not be in jeopardy of losing my job. I am blessed. So I know that the Lord can make a way to bring you where you need to be in Him if you trust and believe in Him. It is easy for me these days to surround myself, it is habit now. With all the writing I do for blogs and WL4J, along with the books and radio shows, I am in the word constantly, let us not forget my own personal reading, our neighborhood bible study, and witnessing to others! I LOVE IT!! I would not have it any other way. God is so good! If we want to be in Him, He gives us the ability to do so, it is all about our determination.
I think that is really what makes the difference between all of us. As I was reading the part about judging, in the beginning of my walk, I used to wonder what was wrong with people. Why are people not doing this or why are they not doing that? If I can get it and understand it why are they not doing that too? What is wrong with them? LOL It was after the Lord started dealing with me in this manner, after He had me start several support groups for abuse and eventually the women’s ministries, that I came to see why it was the way it was. We are all different people; we are not all the same, so we all learn at different paces along with different manners of learning. Some of us are more determined than others, and some are just not sure of where they stand yet. It is nothing new or anything that is going to change either, people are people and I have learned to look past all that and remember that I may get one thing clear and yet the other thing may not be so clear to me as it is to others. For example, I never understood death; I just did not get it. It just seemed like what I was taught did not line up with the bible, so I had to rethink it all over again. It is something how some people understood what I did not and yet when they tried to explain it to me, I did not get it. It was not until after I asked God to reveal it all to me that I came to a better understanding. God is awesome like that!
It is really something when you think about it, we have to be mindful if we do look at others, for the same measure stick we use for them will be used for us. I was just reading the other day as I was working on the “Good Morning” inspirational emails that I send out, the story of the woman who was charged with adultery.
John 8:4-11 4They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. 5Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? 6This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not. 7So when they continued asking him, he lifted up himself, and said unto them, He that is without sin among you, let him first cast a stone at her. 8And again he stooped down, and wrote on the ground. 9And they which heard it, being convicted by their own conscience, went out one by one, beginning at the eldest, even unto the last: and Jesus was left alone, and the woman standing in the midst. 10When Jesus had lifted up himself, and saw none but the woman, he said unto her, Woman, where are those thine accusers? hath no man condemned thee? 11She said, No man, Lord. And Jesus said unto her, Neither do I condemn thee: go, and sin no more.
This should be a lesson for us all, but yet and still let us remember not to put up with those that are misleading others to their deaths either. I think many times we get confused and do not realize that we can speak the truth to a sister or brother in Christ without condemning them. We give them the true word of God, and step back, God’s word will do what God’s word is to do, not us beating them up with the word of God or harping on them about it. I say it is correction in love; we can correct someone in love, even though there are situations in the bible where correction is to save the body of Christ as in when Paul was speaking of putting out the man because of the sins that he was committing and how it was corrupting the church. (I believe it is in Corinthians but I could be wrong – hey that is a good exercise to do – you find it! LOL) Plus there is a judgment that we are to do that is righteous judgment. (John 7:24)
I try to stay away from it as I believe that the same measuring stick that I use for others is the same one that will be used for me, so as long as it is lining up with the word of God, then it is cool but once my own opinions and thoughts come into it, ugghhhhh that is ugly. Yet another reason why I live by WDJD (what did Jesus do) He forgave all. Loved all, and gave them the word of God, with three good words added on “sin no more”, which is how I try to do others. I have a harder time with those that are in leadership, as I would love to speak to some of them about their tactics of doing things but I do not believe I will be given the opportunity to do so. Minister Merv, my hubby, always puts on his ministering cap when it comes to me in those areas because I am not very tolerant of those in leadership who are leading those down the wrong path. I have to remember to love them too. LOL I speak against all wrong even in my own life. Too many of us are speaking on the wrong things and not the things that need addressed, the unsaved are just that, unsaved and need prayer, the saved are just that saved and need prayer!
Now the honesty part of my writings today...the different levels of others really get me going sometimes. I still pray much about this because there are some things to me that is just plain and clear – yet I look at others and go – WHAT THE HECK? You said you love Jesus why the heck did that come out of your mouth. LOL I have learned that people think the same things about me, or wonder where my brain is in my writings or other communications too. It helps a little bit, but there are just some subjects I am very passionate about that I have compassion for others but do not give me a line of mess in our conversation about it, or the seriousness of me is going to come out.
I listen to women talk about abortions they have had, I listen to the stories of women killing their children, I listen to Christians talk about having sex with a person who is not saved or saved, I listen to people who act as if you have to have a major theology degree to write anything or be the leader of anything without it. These are a few topics that get me going…let me go with the one that screams the loudest today…
I am not perfect, far from perfect, and never even say that I am because the only one who is perfect is Jesus Christ himself! AMEN! It bothers me that now Christians put this spin on things that if you do not have some kind of doctor degree in theology, that you can not possibly run a ministry. I see so many Doctor this and PHD that with Christians, that I do not disrespect the education – please understand me, but the Lord used uneducated people along with educated people. Some how the body of Christ has come to think if a person does not have a title they are not worth listening to. There are so many gifts and talents that God has blessed so many of us with that it is not just the ones with titles that are to be listened too. It is the ones that God directs us to listen to.
I believe that if you study the word of God, you are just as “good” as those that got their doctor degree in theology. Now if I had the ability to go to school to do so, would I do so, yes I would, for the knowledge and I pray that those that do go to school are going for all the right reasons. I heard one person say once that now a days you need a degree to get any one to come to your church – WHAT??? Hummmm since when did prayer stop working?
God has blessed me to be the founder of Women Living 4 Jesus ministries, along with being the wife of a wonderful man of God who has the compassion and desire to spread the gospel to all those he meets, well we are equally yoked! AMEN! We do as God directs us to do and we stand tall in knowing that His will is to be done. We take what God gives us and bless others with it because that is what we are to do, does that make us any less capable of doing the work of God – hecks no!! We are blessed!
I have a desire to reach out to all women who are still in bondage in their walk with the Lord and give them encouragement to keep moving forward in the Lord each day. I know that there are people who charge for this service, yet I do it freely because this is what the word of God says. It hurts my heart to see where some Christians are looking at how the word of God or doing what God has told us to do freely, charge for it. Now that is not to say taking donations is bad, not saying that at all, yet and still, what I am saying is that it should be a free donation of love from others.
The Lord has given me a vision of WL4J and where it is going and what it will do, I always saw it on a small scale until recently. The Lord has stated it is on a bigger scale than I thought it would be as I am shy about things still in that area, but yet and still He is molding me. It is fired behind my biggest pet peeve that I have with Christians, and I prayed long and hard with the Lord over this. We at WL4J do not charge for a thing for any of our services that we offer. Not a red cent, do we accept donations, sure we do, but not in the normal way either. We have workshops and trainings that we do not charge to facilitate, now do we request that if the distance is a far distance that room and board be paid, of course we do, but yet and still, if we have the money to put ourselves up we will do it.
I had grown so tired of everyone doing something for money when in essences there are sisters and brothers in Christ who are suffering every single day and just a word of encouragement can go a long way. I am tired of people just needing someone to listen to them, yet they have to pay to get that done too. It can be tiresome when you open yourself up to offering those things but it is all worth it when even just one person is stronger in Jesus because of the Lord using you! One thing I love about Christianity Oasis is that sure you take donations, but the time that was put into this site and the time that goes into the site in helping others is so much more worth what you put into it because of the love, the compassion, the help, and direction that is given. There are all kinds of things offered and I was excited to place this site on our web sites that we have so that all those that are looking can find true help.
It is time for all of us to be a blessing and stop looking for the blessing. It is about loving the Lord not getting what we can out of it. I am proud to be the founder of Women Living 4 Jesus Ministries and I am equally proud to participate at the Christianity Oasis too, it is one of the sites I visit daily and plan on doing so for as long as the Lord directs me to do. There are a lot of lessons to read in the Bible Studies section. Praise the Lord!
Oops, got on my rampage and did not get into my complete honesty thing, started it and went off somewhere. Anyhow…I am a sister who believes in blessing others and it bothers me beyond belief when others do not, which includes my hubby. NOW do not get me wrong, he truly believes in blessing others big time, just our dollar figures do not always add up to the same dollar. LOL We had a serious disagreement on that the other day and after I said my piece about it, in the store, I had to be silent for the Lord showed me that the enemy was working at trying to get there to be discord between us. It was felt big time and after prayer, we came together and discussed the situation. He misunderstood me of course, so it was all good in the end, but the beauty of it all was I had an opportunity to express to him what I consider a blessing and to what lengths I would go to help another. I think it shocked him at one point but as I said to him – Jesus said…
Matthew 6:33-34 33But seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness; and all these things shall be added unto you. 34Take therefore no thought for the morrow: for the morrow shall take thought for the things of itself. Sufficient unto the day is the evil thereof.
Luke 18:22 Now when Jesus heard these things, he said unto him, Yet lackest thou one thing: sell all that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven: and come, follow me.
Now will I not pay my bills to help someone else, no I will not do that, as that is not scripture based either, as we are to render unto Caesar what is his, but I will not buy a new dress to give another money for food or a new dress. It is just my nature, and I had to explain that to my husband. I think he understood me better and why I do what I do just in that.
Oh but let me tell you, Sister Alissa Lynne was very upset with her husband during this disagreement, which was in turn an misunderstanding/miscommunication – Thank God!
Oh what a lesson learned for sure for both of us! Praise God for the growth and now I know that we will not have this issue again.
Well this was long today – LOL Oh well! Sorry! LOL
Have a beautiful and blessed day!
Love your sister in Christ,
Sister Alissa Lynne
RSS Feed